"Stand by Your Man" became a number one C&W hit as well as Tammy Wynette's signature song, and the album that shares its name topped the C&W album chart and crossed over to the pop chart, achieving platinum sales status along the way. Others in the music industry must have been paying attention, considering that two album tracks, "I Stayed Long Enough" (written by Wynette) and "Forever Yours," soon became hits for Billie Jo Spears and Dottie West, respectively. Unlike Wynette's previous album, D-I-V-O-R-C-E, Stand by Your Man does not rely heavily on material associated with other artists, the most notable exception being a recording of Webb Pierce's 1957 hit "It's My Way." Although the result is a consistent album by '60s standards, the commercial importance of Stand by Your Man is more significantly tied to the strength of the title track than to its overall quality.© Greg Adams /TiVo

All the subtle variations on Kem’s sound -- his exceptionally smooth adult contemporary R&B, modern quiet storm that has earned the singer two gold-selling albums -- add up to a set that doesn’t sound like a mere rehash of his past successes. While Intimacy features his familiar gentle, less-is-more touch throughout, it’s more forwardly sensual -- skillfully so, without being too brash or overt for his audience -- and upfront all-around, from the romantic material to the odes to mothers and inner peace. On Kemistry and Album II, there often was a slight distance to Kem’s voice, both sonically and lyrically, but there is no such air of mystery here. His voice is clear over the sparse arrangements, and his words are more direct than before. That said, the biggest surprise is “Golden Days,” in which Jill Scott, the first vocal guest on a Kem album, rants and preaches for over a minute.© Andy Kellman /TiVo

All the subtle variations on Kem’s sound -- his exceptionally smooth adult contemporary R&B, modern quiet storm that has earned the singer two gold-selling albums -- add up to a set that doesn’t sound like a mere rehash of his past successes. While Intimacy features his familiar gentle, less-is-more touch throughout, it’s more forwardly sensual -- skillfully so, without being too brash or overt for his audience -- and upfront all-around, from the romantic material to the odes to mothers and inner peace. On Kemistry and Album II, there often was a slight distance to Kem’s voice, both sonically and lyrically, but there is no such air of mystery here. His voice is clear over the sparse arrangements, and his words are more direct than before. That said, the biggest surprise is “Golden Days,” in which Jill Scott, the first vocal guest on a Kem album, rants and preaches for over a minute. © Andy Kellman /TiVo

The only true Purcell opera – the others considered to be semi-operas, a format closer to musical theatre – Dido & Aeneas is a masterpiece that offers such musical density that the piece was destined to radically influence the tastes of English society, which quickly embraced the arrival of entirely sung operas. The work was created in London in 1896, in a version that was surely more complete than the one that we possess today, according to the libretto by Nahum Tate which mentions a prologue of music that has since been lost. Taking on the myth of The Aeneid, the opera is a loose adaptation of Book IV of the work by Virgil. The British ensemble La Nuova Musica – whose recording of Couperin’s “Tenebrae Readings for Holy Wednesday” on harmonia mundi we so admired in 2016 – offers us a luminous and balanced version of the work, accompanied by a cast of top-notch soloists, Fleur Barron and Matthew Brook being first in line. A record released by PentaTone, this sneak preview is presented exclusively by Qobuz for download until September 21, 2023. © Pierre Lamy/Qobuz

Four years after the pinnacle of Stevie Wonder's mid-'70s typhoon of classic albums, Hotter Than July was the proper follow-up to Songs in the Key of Life (his Journey Through the Secret Life of Plants concept record was actually a soundtrack to an obscure movie that fared miserably in theaters). It also found Wonder in a different musical climate than the one that savored his every move from 1972 to 1977. Disco and new wave had slowly crept their way into the mainstream record-buying public, and hindered the once-ample room for socially and politically charged lyrics. However, Wonder naysayed the trends and continues to do what he did best. Solid songwriting, musicianship, and production are evident in the majority of Hotter Than July. Wonder also carries on his tradition of penning songs normally not associated with his trademark sound, from the disco-tinged "All I Do" (originally planned to be released by Tammi Terrell almost ten years previously) to the reggae-influenced smash "Master Blaster (Jammin)," which went straight to the top of the R&B charts. While admittedly there are a few less-than-standard tracks, he closes the album on an amazing high note with one of the most aching ballads in his canon ("Lately") and a touching anthem to civil rights pioneer Martin Luther King, Jr. ("Happy Birthday"). While most definitely not on the same tier as Innervisions or Songs in the Key of Life, Hotter Than July is the portrait of an artist who still had the Midas touch, but stood at the crossroads of an illustrious career.© Rob Theakston /TiVo

Following the success of Sundown, Gordon Lightfoot continued his success by releasing a greatest-hits compilation. A double album (now a single CD), it contained the most popular songs from his Warner Bros. years on disc two, and he re-recorded many of his early songs for side one of record one. Although not as good, perhaps, as the originals, this did bring them up to date with his current sound style. Just about all the favorites are here (except "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald," which hadn't been recorded yet when this set was put together and appears on Lightfoot's second volume of Gord's Gold), making this a good general overview of a strong talent. When Warner transferred the double LP to CD, "Affair on 8th Avenue" was dropped from the program to make the set fit on a single disc. Randy Newman arranged the orchestration on "Minstrel of the Dawn," by the way.© James Chrispell & Steve Leggett /TiVo

The fourth album from Manchester quartet led by the “bad boy of pop-rock” (as described by Pitchfork) Matty Healy, 31. The most interesting thing about The 1975’s music is its ability, through diversity and multiplicity, to represent the times in which we live. This is their strength, but also one of their limitations. On this rather pretentiously titled album, “Notes On A Conditional Form”, we find an ensemble of many styles: an intro of several minutes consisting of worrisome spoken-word à la Laurie Anderson (in fact an alarming speech by Great Thunberg on “The 1975”), thrashing rock and punks’ cries on “People”, a quasi-classical section resembling the soundtrack of a new age film on “The End (Music For Cars)” before finishing it all off with the very R&B, “Frail State of Mind”… A sort of virtuous patchwork, the album resembles an eclectic radio show or playlist. With some twenty-two tracks, and a one hour twenty minute run time, this might appear lengthy. But the diversity of this post modern collage helps us to forget that we are listening to just one group. The only danger? A blurred identity diluted through multitude. A little like our lives today. © Yan Céh/Qobuz

In the year of his 90th birthday (which he would have celebrated on the 23rd of September 2020 had he not died in 2004), Ray Charles is honoured with a new 90-track compilation box set. Just another compilation like all the rest? Yes and no. Ray Charles is undoubtedly one of the most-compiled artists in the history of music. Published by Tangerine, the label that the musician set up at the end of the 50s to keep the rights to his songs, this box set starts out like all the others: with the post-Atlantic hits, Georgia On My Mind, Hit The Road Jack, One Mint Julep, Busted... These are timeless treasures of proto-soul, but there doesn't seem to be much novelty here. The rest is much more interesting, and much rarer: tracks recorded between the second half of the 1960s and the 2000s, many of which were only released on vinyl, never reissued on CD and until now unavailable on digital. This is the first time that Ray Charles' lesser-known years have been given the compilation treatment in this way, and it is a revelation. In the 90s and 2000s, the production of his songs had a synthetic feel, and they did not age too well. These rarer songs are often hidden gems of southern soul, flavoured with country and wrapped in sumptuous symphonic orchestrations. Whether he is singing the Muppets (It's Ain't Easy Being Green) or Gershwin (Summertime, a duet with Cleo Laine), Ray Charles is always deeply moving. Now, the dream is to hear reissues of all these albums in their entirety. © Stéphane Deschamps/Qobuz

Liza Minnelli's career as a recording artist essentially lapsed after the commercial failure of her 1977 album Tropical Nights, but recording was never one of her real priorities, taking a back seat to her work as a live performer and film star. After early records on which she was positioned as a middle-of-the-road pop singer in the '60s, she made some attempts to perform contemporary, rock-informed material, but her heart wasn't in that, and eventually she contented herself with occasionally updating her stage act on record, notably with 1987's Liza Minnelli at Carnegie Hall. Thus, Results, her first studio album in 12 years, seemed to come out of the blue. And for Minnelli's old-time fans, it was very different from what they might have expected. Simply put, the album was a Pet Shop Boys electronic dance disc with Minnelli serving as vocalist. Pet Shop Boys, the duo of Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe, were all over the record, writing seven of the songs (including a cover of their hit "Rent"), producing, and contributing synthesizer programming, with Tennant even chiming in on vocals here and there. Although they did place Minnelli in front of an orchestra on "Tonight Is Forever" and give her a jazzy arrangement for "I Can't Say Goodnight" at the end of the disc, for the most part the singer was swamped by the electronically generated beats and sounds. Sometimes, as on "Love Pains," she was even forced to compete with other female voices more accustomed to making themselves heard through such arrangements. Among the more interesting, if odd, tracks was a version of Stephen Sondheim's "Losing My Mind" from the musical Follies, which might have seemed a good song choice for a more conventional Minnelli collection, but that here was made to sound like Laura Branigan's 1982 hit "Gloria." That track, released in advance of the album, hit the Top Ten in the U.K. and made the dance charts in the U.S. The full LP made the U.S. charts, but its greatest success occurred in Great Britain, where it made the Top Ten and threw off three more chart singles. It was, however, a one-off. Pet Shop Boys went back to their career, and Minnelli went back to singing "Cabaret" in theaters around the world. Although she held her own against the arrangements, Results is more a Pet Shop Boys album than a Liza Minnelli disc.© William Ruhlmann /TiVo